Thanks.

I forgot to add that I intend to choose the option of encrypting the disk when I install Mint 18.1. Also that I have a secondary HD that is not encrypted.

Will either of these make any difference regarding either virtualboxing or dual booting?

... not for the virtualization solution. The underlying linux system's encryption module will do its job transparently and Virtualbox will just see a normal disk / partition.

However, if dual booting, you will not be able to install Windows XP on the same disk if you have encrypted it with linux. If you install XP on the unencrypted secondary disk, that will work. However XP will not even see that there is another disk if it was encrypted using linux. So the ext4 file system drivers for Windows I mentioned in a previous post will be useless - this may or may not be an issue for you. Bottom line, you would have slightly less sharing capabilities between the 2 systems.

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Importing Windows VM's across hardware is still a risky business. Importing OEM signed windows installs tends to not work.

Bottom line is HAL and how to correct it. Windows 10 sometimes just fixes the hal on the fly if you have developer or business versions. Windows xp may be too tied to the hardware. In fact many of the older cd's that used to be sold online didn't have the full drivers in them as they were OEM disks.

Just for completeness, decided to convert the XP vhd into a qcow2 and run it under KVM for comparison. On this 6 year old laptop.
Surprise (not) - it ran better than under M$ofts own hipervisor. But I still had issues with the mic and key combination pass-through.

Staying on real hardware for what I need.

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Can I virtualbox or dual boot 32bit WinXp with 64bit Linux, or do they both have to be 64bit?

I had problems getting a driver for my old printer with 64bit Windows, but no problems with 32bit Windows or 64bit Linux Mint.

Thanks.

As long as you have a 64-bit machine, yes you can. Windows XP was overwhelmingly 32-bit anyway.

I run 64-bit Linux Mint 18.1 with a 32-bit XP VirtualBox VM. I haven't tried running a printer from it though. I'm not sure how that will work for you.

My recommendation would be to launch in and set up VirtualBox anyway, load a Windows XP VM and try to set up everything you need, with the help of the folk on here. If it all works out, great. If you feel that it's not working out then you can switch to running a dual boot.

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I add my voice to confirm that there is absolutely no problem running a 32 bit OS inside VirtualBox on a 64 bit host OS (Linux or otherwise). I frequently do this to this day.

Also, printing will function transparently as long as the setup is correct in the Windows XP guest.

No problem with the dual-boot option either.

Cheers.

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VM. (Then delete... microcoughed-losedough$‽ )

I run XP (32bit) Home edition in VBox and have for the last 5yrs on a 64bit linux pc without any problems, works great. The choice between dual-boot vs VBox is purely hardware however, if your hardware can handle VM's then by all means VM for some added security for the outdated no longer support XP. I keep XP around (in VBox) for some things it did well also. And for backing up your VMs, I recommend not using VBox's snapshot backups, but use rsync or other to copy them to a backup location, that way if you get a problem with the VM, just rsync it from the backup overwrite/replace the existing one and problem is gone. I don't rysnc while the VM is running.

EDIT: I do recall I had some problems installing some 3rd party software in the XP VM with the initial screen resolution when I first installed XP - I think it was install XP, get all the drivers right and resolution right, then install 3rd party extra stuff - too long ago I don't recall which software was problem if installed out of order - I have an XP install disk so was able to redo it. No problems with printing. The Linux host and the Windows guests print to same network printer without issue (often times print cleaner than Linux host) for critical prints that i don't want the format screwed up I print from the VBox Windows guests, either XP or Win7.

Thanks greatly Allend, that link is extremely useful. I recall I was not able to get access to the Microsoft Update Catalogue when trying to find a driver for my HP Deskjet930c.

So when I feel like spending all day doing it, I shall install Win7 and dual boot with Linux Mint 18.1.

Or I might even install Mint 18.1 and virtualbox Win7 or WinXP.

Thanks.

Number 1 is that XP probably won't run on your hardware. It was difficult to impossible to find drivers back in 2009.

Personally, I would dual boot Mint and some other linux and make VMs of both XP and Win7.

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The hardware for such virtual machines is tits these days, my Thinkpad T420 ran 7® upgraded to 10® and Path of Neo® just fine (in a VM) back when I needed proprietary for school. Now if I get back to school I will try and likely succeed with stretch/sid!

Have fun!

Why? There's no need for that. Far better that the OP just gets used to Mint at the moment and see if that works well for them before thinking about looking at other distros.

Distro-hopping seems to be be worn like a badge of honour, but in some cases we've had newbies on here who as soon as any problems happen blame the distro and install another, wash and repeat...

Best therefore for the OP not to complicate things at first. Try out Mint with an XP VM and see how it goes on both sides.

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IMO distro-hopping is crucial like learning the same thing from many topdogs (more tricks &c*...) and forget "popularity" it like ubuntu is built on GNU\Debian!

... Have to agree with hydrurga on this one. If the OP is unfamiliar with linux, it's probably worthwhile to choose a distro based on recommendations and stick with it until experienced enough to know whether another distro is required or not. Mint seems to be extremely popular these days and, from what I hear, easy to use for Windows users.

Cheers :-)

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